Still a Frank Sinatra Song ?

Who of us isn’t familiar with Sinatra’s rendition of “Chicago?”

A portion of the lyrics ring true with me, as I was born and raised in Chicago … “Chicago, Chicago, Chicago, that’s my home town”

But the Chicago that I grew up in is no longer the same “toddling town”  that it was back in my day …

“Chicago, Chicago that toddling town

Chicago, Chicago I will show you around”

And no, I will not show you around! – Too dangerous. 

A friend who was born and raised on the West Side of Chicago and now lives in the Chicago suburbs has similar feelings. He played football at St. Phillip’s high school on the West Side, but will now “under no circumstances” go anywhere near “State Street, that great street.” – Too dangerous.

One wonders if “The town that Billy Sunday couldn’t shut down” needs to be shut down. Why do I say that? 

Here is the headline from the Chicago Sun Times:

Chicago’s most violent weekend of 2021: 104 shot, 19 of them killed. 13 kids among the wounded

The following is from the body of this Sun Times story:

“In the deadliest and most violent weekend this year in Chicago, over 100 people have been shot over the long Fourth of July weekend, 19 of them killed.

Among the wounded were at least 13 children and two Chicago police supervisors. Five of the kids were shot within nine hours Sunday evening through early Monday.

Both the number of fatal shootings and the number of shootings overall are highs for 2021, according to a Chicago Sun-Times database of shootings. By 5 p.m. Monday, Chicago had recorded 2,000 shootings this year, the Sun-Times’ database shows.”

Further down in this same article I was struck by the following:

“One person was killed and three others wounded in a shooting Sunday night in Austin on the West Side. About 10:45 p.m., two men and a woman were standing in an alley in the first block of North Menard Avenue when a 33-year-old man began shooting at them, police said.”

OMG … I grew up in Austin, and one of my best friends lived in the first block of North Menard Avenue, which is two blocks from where I lived for many years.

An FYI for those of you who are not from Chicago … it is a Democrat run city, and has been so for eons. My parents were Daley Democrats, as was just about everybody back then. (From Wikipedia: Richard Joseph Daley was an American politician who served as the Mayor of Chicago from 1955 and the chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party Central Committee from 1953 until his death in 1976.) While I was growing up Chicago was “a city that worked.” It no longer works. 

The mayor in Chicago these days is another Democrat, Lori Lightfoot, who last month asserted that crime “is not out of control” in the city. The mayor’s response came after a Newsmax reporter asked about “off-the-charts” violent crime. “Not out of control!” Perhaps she should talk with the parents of the children who were shot this past weekend! Putting it politely, she doesn’t seem qualified to be included in the same sentence as Richard J. Daley, as Chicago seems to be the antithesis of being “a city that works.”

I have often asked myself, “On the National scene where are the Democrats?” Almost all of the major cities in the country are run by Democrats, and in just about all of them … chaos! Now granted that Chicago is probably the worst in terms of violence and murders, but the other Democratically run other big cities are not far behind. So I will ask again, “Where are the Democrats? I do not hear them addressing the major issue of inner city violence and mayhem. They are busy spouting off about Transgenders, etc. but do not address the real issues in the Democrat run cities. President Biden can spew hatred towards Republicans under the guise of “unity,” but I have heard zero, zip, nada from him about the mayhem in Chicago. For your information, Joe, those that are getting shot and killed in Chicago are predominantly black and almost assuredly will continue to vote for Democrats, except of course for the children who were shot and killed this past weekend … they will never vote.

To close: “Are there any Democratic politicians out there who have the courage and fortitude to address this issue?”

I’m waiting, but I will not be holding my breath!

7/7/21

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